India has proposed to Vietnam cooperation in emerging areas such as cyber security, information security, military medicine and submarine search and rescue.

The 14th India-Vietnam Defence Policy Dialogue was held here on Thursday. It was co-chaired by Defence Secretary Giridhar Aramane and Deputy Minister of National Defence of Vietnam Senior Lieutenant General Hoang Xuan Chien.

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During the meeting, the two sides reviewed the range of bilateral defence cooperation issues and noted the transformative progress in the ties after the signing of ‘Joint Vision Statement on India-Vietnam Defence Partnership towards 2030’ in June 2022 during the visit of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to Vietnam.

“Vietnam proposed five focus areas for cooperation which included delegation exchanges and dialogue, staff-talks; Service-to-Service cooperation; Education and training; and Defence Industry cooperation. The Defence Secretary welcomed the five point proposal and proposed cooperation in emerging areas of concern for both countries like Cyber Security, Information Security, Military Medicine, Submarine Search & Rescue,” the Ministry of Defence said here on Friday.

The Defence Secretary highlighted the potential of domestic defence industry to fulfill capacity and capability enhancement of Friendly Foreign Countries, and looked forward to fruitful partnership with Vietnam People’s Armed Forces, and their industries.

After the meeting, the Defence Secretary and the Deputy Minister of National Defence of Vietnam signed a Letter of Intent to strengthen cooperation in the field of training including exchange of instructors and experts.

Defence cooperation is one of the strong pillars of Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between India and Vietnam. Vietnam is an important partner in India’s Act East Policy and in the Indo-Pacific Region.

Amid China’s aggressive posturing on maritime issues, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday announced a $300million credit line to strengthen Vietnam’s maritime security and asserted that India will continue its cooperation with the Southeast Asian nation for a free, open, rules-based and prosperous Indo-Pacific.

India and Vietnam have also decided that they will intensify cooperation on the issue of terrorism and cyber security, he said at a press conference with visiting Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh after wide-ranging talks between them.

Pham Minh Chinh was on a three-day state visit to India from July 30 to August 1.